How We Work Consciously to use Diversity as a Competitive Advantage

We are convinced that a diverse team is a competitive advantage, and we do all we can to ensure that we don’t think the same way. Diversity to us is difference in experience, mindset, cultural background, age, gender, company cultures and even personality. If we hired people with only one personality type, how would we then be able to look out for all opportunities?

McKinsey also argues and document that companies managed by diverse teams in terms of ethnicity, culture and gender has a 33% higher chance of outperforming companies managed by conformable teams (probably with the same world view and mind set). See documentation below.

The way we do it in practice is to have established a company culture based on respect for people, regardless of cultural background, a company culture that is curious and based on the sound belief that everyone has something to contribute with, being it of scientific nature, but especially also sharing world views based on travels and own experience from the different countries we lived in. With us and our collaboration partners you will find people from many continents; UK, Norway, Iraq, Sweden, Nigeria, Czech Republic, US, Brazil, Russia, Denmark, France, Belgium and Italy.

One of our core values is TRUST, and based on this everyone are encouraged to speak up - especially if they are curious about something, or thinks something is wrong or unfair. Especially if you are young. And everybody in ExploCrowd listens, because they truly care. The immediate result of that is that everything is discussed in the team, it being global politics, history and religion, and this widens horizons and expands mind sets, because we all have something to learn from each other. We all have something to contribute with. This way, hierarchy is avoided to a large extent, and that strengthens the integrity of the organisation further, enabling it to respond to change and opportunities at a faster pace.

We plan to share our learnings, but will need more time to document and measure the performance results over some years. However, the financial results are a good indication that working consciously with diversity and a leadership philosophy optimised for the future, and it is going in the right direction.

If you need inspiration and practical advice to secure diversity in your own organisation, below you will find a description of how an international consultancy handled it.

McKinsey Report: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity

Workforce Case: http://www.workforce.com/2018/07/19/gender-parity-in-the-workplace-is-possible-we-did-it-you-can-too/